Great free downloads!
As a new member, I may be repeating old information here, but I wanted to alert other members to a wonderful site which allows you to download older recordings, MANY of them real classics, onto your hard drive (assuming you have lots of memory):
www.karadar.com
Beethoven lovers will especially appreciate such goodies as a nearly complete set of Kempff's superior 1950s version of the piano sonatas and his complete violin sonatas with Wolfgang Schneiderhan; the cello sonatas with Schnabel and Fournier; multiple versions of the symphonies by Toscanini (complete), Furtwaengler, Abendroth, Walter, and Erich Kleiber among others; and the complete string quartets with the Vegh Quartet, along with individual quartets by the Budapest, the Busch and other classic ensembles.
The sound quality of these is variable, ranging from poor but listenable to excellent.
And Beethoven represents only a small fraction of the astonishing riches on this site: Bach, Mozart, and Haydn (pre-period instruments of course), Brahms, Schumann, Schubert, Bruckner, and many others are also very well-represented, and for opera buffs there are several dozen complete recordings of the Wagner canon, Verdi (some GREAT stuff, including Toscanini's Otello, excellent versions of Ballo, Rigoletto and Trovatore), and superb performances of Andrea Chenier, Cav/Pag and Boris Godunov with the great Mark Reizen in a volcanic interpretation by Golovanov.
Other highlights include Gieseking playing Bach, Debussy, Schumann and others, and the brilliant, short-lived William Kapell in Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Bach, Prokofiev and others.
There are also hundreds of hundreds of single or excerpted examples to introduce you to great singers and performers, such as Schipa, Gigli, McCormack, Teyte, Lehmann, Lemnitz, Galli-Curci, Toti dal Monti, Paglighi, Melchior etc. etc. etc.
Really, if you don't know these great old performances, you owe it to yourself to check out the several thousand works available FOR FREE on this miraculous site. If you don't like what you've downloaded, you can always delete it and make space for more.
It's a bit complicated learning how to use the site, but VERY worth your while. Each download is a Real Player audio clip.
I've been in hog heaven for the past month, and felt I had to share!
www.karadar.com
Beethoven lovers will especially appreciate such goodies as a nearly complete set of Kempff's superior 1950s version of the piano sonatas and his complete violin sonatas with Wolfgang Schneiderhan; the cello sonatas with Schnabel and Fournier; multiple versions of the symphonies by Toscanini (complete), Furtwaengler, Abendroth, Walter, and Erich Kleiber among others; and the complete string quartets with the Vegh Quartet, along with individual quartets by the Budapest, the Busch and other classic ensembles.
The sound quality of these is variable, ranging from poor but listenable to excellent.
And Beethoven represents only a small fraction of the astonishing riches on this site: Bach, Mozart, and Haydn (pre-period instruments of course), Brahms, Schumann, Schubert, Bruckner, and many others are also very well-represented, and for opera buffs there are several dozen complete recordings of the Wagner canon, Verdi (some GREAT stuff, including Toscanini's Otello, excellent versions of Ballo, Rigoletto and Trovatore), and superb performances of Andrea Chenier, Cav/Pag and Boris Godunov with the great Mark Reizen in a volcanic interpretation by Golovanov.
Other highlights include Gieseking playing Bach, Debussy, Schumann and others, and the brilliant, short-lived William Kapell in Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Bach, Prokofiev and others.
There are also hundreds of hundreds of single or excerpted examples to introduce you to great singers and performers, such as Schipa, Gigli, McCormack, Teyte, Lehmann, Lemnitz, Galli-Curci, Toti dal Monti, Paglighi, Melchior etc. etc. etc.
Really, if you don't know these great old performances, you owe it to yourself to check out the several thousand works available FOR FREE on this miraculous site. If you don't like what you've downloaded, you can always delete it and make space for more.
It's a bit complicated learning how to use the site, but VERY worth your while. Each download is a Real Player audio clip.
I've been in hog heaven for the past month, and felt I had to share!